The best time for reform is… NOW| Croatia

Table of contents:

• What was it like before
• The clock is ticking: what should employers do
• Waiting for changes

The time when Croatian protection was called weak, non-comprehensive, and just not EU-member level is almost in the past. The reason for it is a new law, which came into force in July 2019. 

All the previous evaluations of whistleblowing regulations in Croatia can be therefore considered irrelevant.

How the situation will change in the future, no one knows, but it is a step forward to the common European Parliament Directive passed in April 2019.

What was it like before?

Different parts of Croatian legislation were supposed to cover one of the stages of whistleblowing; certain limitations could be seen if there was no specific law.

Initiatives of local organizations, such as the Center for Peace Studies, made it possible to pass the law in 2019.

The clock is ticking: what should employers do?

A new law always means some excellent opportunities for the people to whom it is aimed and a range of responsibilities for those who ensure its work. The situation is quite urgent for employers — the deadline for the full implementation of the law for whistleblowers is March 2020.

If the company has more than 50 employees (in some countries it's 10!), the employer should:

• assign a responsible person to receive the complaints;
• ensure that personal data is protected;
• act upon the chosen system and give an explanation to the employee regarding the process of investigation;
• consider that any harmful actions to the employee before the results of the investigation are penalized by law.

Nothing different from existing European law on whistleblowing, but now the time is limited.

Waiting for changes

Currently, Croatian results in fighting corruption are not very prominent; it is 60th in the world rating with a middle level of corruption noticed in the public sector.